As a first time attendee (and GoH) I have to say I was really impressed. We knew it would be big but the visual impact of all those people in line, in costume, in the dealers room - WOW!
And very well run! There may have been glitches (and with that many attendees, how could there not be?) but overall it ran like a well-oiled machine.
I enjoyed all of the events we attended - the Moonlight Ball, Momiji Brunch, Maid Cafe, Masquerade, etc. and loved the level of enthusiasm everywhere we went.

This post is going to be long, unfortunately, as I reply to comments seen earlier in the thread. Apologies in advance!

Before I do that, though, the other director and I want to express a HUGE THANK YOU to everyone that participated in the masquerade this year (and our amazing staff for helping us with one of the largest events at the con). We sincerely appreciate your patience as we tried out a new sound and lighting registration system and greenroom check in process, and apologize for those of you who may have had issues. We've explained a little about this on the Anime North Teahouse forum,here.

Some of the explanations will be duplicated as I respond to comments on behalf of the other director and myself.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Rainbowgasm

Masq reg took WAY too long to process everything Friday evening...

We agree, and we sincerely apologize. The Teahouse post goes into more detail, but the short explanation of why it took so long was that we were processing sound & lighting at registration instead of the greenroom. Sound (and new lighting) check takes time, and availability of the greenroom was reduced by an hour this year, meaning there'd be no way for us to process things in time before the start of the show, and no way to fix any sound issues that may have come up at that late time. Because we did it first, it allowed us to stagger greenroom entry, meaning contestants spent less time in the greenroom and had fewer things to take care of when in the greenroom, overall resulting in what we hope was a less stressful time waiting before they go on stage.

Although it doesn't help those who stood in line on Friday, your wait time was not in vain as we took the comments we received, reviewed the process, and sped it up for Saturday (which is likely where there are no "Saturday reg line took forever!" type comments). In comparison to Friday which had about 40 entries in 2-3 hours, we met cap and were done processing about 50 entries in about an hour Saturday morning.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ani_BEE

I did total get why the Masq reg was done that way, I burned two CD's of the same track and one didn't work for them and you find out right away. Also nice they I can stop converting my audio files for AN at least. (FanExpo is another issue with sound. T-T)

I'm not sure if they could get 3 setups (6 people) to do it next year to speed things up on the Friday and cut it down to 2 on Saturday. I had a panicking Yuna next to me who was also in the Friday night skit worried about getting through the line in time to run up stairs lol.

I'm glad the new setup worked for you. That's precisely the kind of thing we wouldn't necessarily have had time to fix if we tried to do it in the greenroom. Thanks for letting us know that it was a success.

See above re: Friday/Saturday. We're discussing things for next year already, as well, in the hopes of cutting down wait times.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Ani_BEE

I found myself nodding off a bit in the green room. lol Over all the green room went smoothly though! for me it was the least hectic of the AN green rooms I've done 5 years.

Thanks for letting us know! We're too busy to see how things are going for each contestant, but we're happy that the process of moving sound & lighting check to registration meant you could have a more relaxing, less stressful greenroom experience. We're trying to cut down on the amount of time required in the greenroom for entries, so at least we know some of this made a positive impact.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shinigami714

Masquerade registration line on Friday. It took so long to start! I think because there were some people new to the job...probably this will be improved upon next year. The poor girl in line ahead of me had to leave to run a panel.

We certainly hope to improve the process next year, now that the sound & lighting team has done it once. As mentioned, it was new information this year (lighting), so it's not that the staff were new to the job, but that the job was new to them.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dawn

I will have to ask to have the guidelines posted on the AN website again.

Full details about the Masquerade are available at Saturday Night Masquerade on www.animenorth.com. Specifically, details on the divisions we use are listed under "Judging Divisions and Information", the second section of "To Enter the Saturday Night Masquerade".

Quote:

Originally Posted by MaiSheri

My only (very minor) suggestion is that when I have entered with a group and won something, we have received ribbons for everyone in the group, but only one certificate.

This was something we really wanted to do this year, but unfortunately, we had limited resources due to finding out that our boxes from the storage locker went missing and we'd therefore lost the vast majority of our supplies, including our certificate paper (who'd take that?!). We'd really like to make it happen for next year.

If you have any further feedback on the masquerade, we highly encourage you to email masquerade AT animenorth.com, as this email goes to BOTH directors, as well as CCing Kaijugal, so you can be sure all relevant parties receive the information and feedback needed to make next year even better. We're admittedly not on Cosplay.com very often, so email really is the best way to reach us and make sure you're heard.

Yours,
Eleryth & Mriswith

PS Von Drago - I'm sad we didn't get to chat it up with you guys. Hopefully we'll get to see you at a costume con in the future. Super glad to hear you enjoyed your time at Anime North! If you have any feedback as well, it's also welcome.

If you have any further feedback on the masquerade, we highly encourage you to email masquerade AT animenorth.com, as this email goes to BOTH directors, as well as CCing Kaijugal, so you can be sure all relevant parties receive the information and feedback needed to make next year even better.

Form the MC:
Thanks to everyone on the staff and especially the entrants for making my 5th AN, such a busy but good one.
I am sorry for to all the entrants that I may not have gotten to talk to in the green room. For various and numerous reasons I didnt have the usual 2 hours plus, to hang and chat with each one of you. I made one full pass thru every den, as usual, but since we were so crunched for time, instead of trying to track down everyone, I stayed in one place at the now empty tech table ( cause I never get my own) and had den moms bring folks to me as needed. This worked okay, but not perfect. It was decided and I agreed, that we needed to get the darn show rolling, so speaking to every single person, would have pushed us back another half hour.

I am glad that I dont think it hurt anyone s entries, and it was fun/odd for me to see things on stage for the first time, like WOW where did THAT come from LOL. this even was the case for the best in show costume.

I know I did a lot less schtick and jokes this year. I just wanted to plow thru so we could get back some of our time. we started about 90 minutes late, but ended only 45 minutes late, so while the folks who had the stage after us were still pissed, it coulda been a lot worse.

so thanks again to everyone, and I look forward to many more years with you all

Just a note about the division system. I just noticed that the information we currently have on the AN site is out of date and needs to be updated. We'll be putting up a clarified and updated version soon.

most of my complaints are about people, not about Anime North itself. the only two complaints I had about Anime North this year were the lack of space to get to things (I had a wheelchair so couldn't fit into certain places to buy things) and that no one seemed to know where the one guest was for autographs. But considering how well everything else went with the convention itself I found the volunteers to be incredibly kind and helpful and I was able to find them for the most part this year. There was no shortage of garbage cans, it wasn't overheating indoors. The convention as a whole was great. I loved the guest line up. I thought it was awesome that the schedules were available at pre-reg this year and how well organized it was. I'm also very grateful to the volunteer who found me in the line up in my chair, because he didn't have to go out of his way to come all the way around the building to get me.
Even things like the skit contest where there weren't many people running the dens and everything everyone did their best to be helpful and make things work smoothly, going as far as to even be a part of our skit.
volunteers were good with giving directions and were overall helpful to both myself and my friends. Thank you so much for everything you did to make this year a great success.
It didn't matter which area I was in, the DT, the TCC, or the Sheriton, everyone was awesome. It was one of the best Anime Norths ever

my cons with people are: Those who crashed other people's photoshoots and just started their own 20-30 minutes early just because they felt entitled. This happened to two of my photoshoots and at one point I couldn't get to my wheelchair because of it. (No, I'm not crippled, I pass out easily and quickly with barely a warning, and once I'm down I can't stand back up, I'm just conscious and foggy).
Also people darting out infront of the wheelchair and glaring at me when they knocked into me. Some people at least apologized, but a lot of them treated it like them running directly into me was my fault.

And on my own behalf I want to apologize to anyone who was in the photoshoots that I had set up because I was late for two of them because Perkins wouldn't give me the bill so I could leave. That's on me, and I'm really sorry if anyone was inconvenienced. At least I know for next year to give them an hour to bring the bill instead of just half an hour.

This was my first Anime North. I drove all the way from NJ because I heard good reviews and got recommendations from some artist alley people at another con. Plus, this was my first trip to Canada in 5 years, so I had more reasons to enjoy myself.

-I liked how it didn't start on Friday until 4 pm or so, while badges were still given out on Thursday. That accomodated the local high schoolers and people stuck at their jobs, but for people who came from far away, it gave more time to prepare for the con or explore the area.

-The Nominoichi was a GREAT idea! I did find some deals on stuff and things that regular dealers wouldn't have. More cons need to do something like this, seriously.

-Outdoor rave? YES. Even if I only spent 15 minutes or so dancing or chilling, it still provided great background music.

-I liked the reptile people in the dealers room. A great chance to pose with live animals in cosplay inside the convention space!

-The location was great. Plenty of hotels, restaurants, a Tim Hortons (which was a lifesaver for me as a foreigner who needed wifi to avoid racking up roaming charges!), and lots of parking.

-The variety of cosplayers was spectacular. I also loved that band playing on the corner on Saturday.

-I didn't get why the DT3 photoshoot location had to be so far away. There were so many stragglers at the one photoshoot I went to there. Was there not anything closer than that?

-The lines for prereg on Thursday were SLOOOOW. The cold weather didn't help either. I got there half an hour before they opened and waited at least two hours after that to get my badge. I saw more bedlam on the days of the actual con.

All in all, AN is a very unique con that I'll recommend to anybody who can make it. There were so many events and activities that were different that made the trip worth it. I don't think I can come every year, but will definitely consider returning in the future. Plus, you Canadians are always such nice people! (and as always, thanks for the numerous Tim Hortons!)

-I liked how it didn't start on Friday until 4 pm or so, while badges were still given out on Thursday. That accomodated the local high schoolers and people stuck at their jobs, but for people who came from far away, it gave more time to prepare for the con or explore the area.

Many people that work at Anime North ether have jobs they have to work on Friday and make sure they have the evening free to help out as well as many volunteers for the convention are students trying to get volunteer hours. Not everyone can take a whole day off work. Also lots of people would feel the need to skip school (high school or college/university or else) just to make it on time which Anime North does not support people choosing to do this which is why they start later that day.

-I didn't get why the DT3 photoshoot location had to be so far away. There were so many stragglers at the one photoshoot I went to there. Was there not anything closer than that?

There is if you checked the back of your pocket program book or the guidebook app on your cell phone. 3 locations on the DT side and more on the TCC side. DT3 happened to be a massive space so some of the larger shoots ended up booking their photoshoot there. There are stragglers at every photoshoot location, its the nature of a con where people can get pretty busy just walking around.

Only got to go for Friday this year but, it was fun! I think the convention was more organized this year than the year before and the lines weren't very long. :3 I didn't end up buying anything this year but, still nice things to look at. I was sad to see that one of the vendor's I liked to buy anime DVD's from wasn't there this year and sadly seems they went out of business. Other than that I had a really good time and I missed cosplaying. T_T Next year for sure!